Books by Arturo Longoria

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

The Mega Folder...now that's a big pocketknife

I can’t remember the year and I vaguely remember the
purchase other than I was in a sporting goods store and eyed this mega-folding
knife displayed under the glass countertop.
Asked to look at it; examined it; decided it was unique. So I took it home and for a number of months
it sat on my desk while I figured out what purpose it might fulfill. A bunch of years have passed since that
afternoon and during the intervening decades the
mega-folder has seen little use. In
truth, it’s just too ponderous and ungainly to serve any useful role in
bushcraft, woodcraft, woods roaming, or general ranch chores. Of course, that’s my opinion and others might
disagree. The nicks on the blade were
made long ago when I needed something to field butcher a deer and I’d left my
small ax and saw back at camp. I was
carrying the mega-folder and used it to break bone—a task it wasn’t suited for
because the blade, though robust, is a bit too
short for bone breaking. I just realized
that I don’t even know what type of steel is used in the knife. I imagine its some sort of stainless alloy
since it hasn’t rusted even though it was left in a storage room drawer for
many years.

The knife comes with a built in wire saw that is somewhat
difficult to unravel and is only partly useful since it is awkward to
use given the cumbersome handle. Notice
as well that there is a small hex wrench located in the pull-out handle of the
wire saw. The wrench is protected by a
piece of rubber tubing.

The blade is ¼ inch thick near its base tapering to
a fine point. The blade measures 3 ¼
inches long and is 1 ¼ inches at its widest section. The handle is made of some sort of hard
plastic and is 5 7/8
long. I haven’t weighed the knife but it
isn’t a lightweight by any means.

Last year Son Number 3 found it in the drawer and
his eyes widened (like I suppose mine did when I first saw it) and so I said,
“Do you want it?” and he said, “Yeah!”

The leather carrying case is well made and
when I first bought the knife it contained a sharpening stone and an octagonal
wrench to lock the blade in place when opened. A nifty feature but I never used it and along
the way the sharpening stone disappeared and so did the wrench.

Once upon a time somebody must have figured this
knife would make a dandy something or the other. Maybe in the hands of a true believer it
might just be the ticket. Regardless, at
least one young fellow eons ago fell for the look and purchased a copy.